June 21, 2007

Adobe has posted a 13.0.1 update to Illustrator CS3. Unlike previous versions where Adobe created special separate installers for these updates, the update mechanism for CS3 apps are all handled through the Adobe Updater application which is built in. To download and install the 13.0.1 update, launch Illustrator (or any other Adobe CS3 application for that matter) and choose Help > Updates. Then follow the directions and prompts.

Here's an overview of some of the things I'm aware of that are addressed with the 13.0.1 update:

- Performance is enhanced. I have no idea how much or where in the app specifically. This seems to be a general statement.

- An issue where removing a color from the color wheel in Live Color causes a crash has been fixed.

- An issue where some linked transparent PSD files exhibited some stitching artifacts during the flattening process has been fixed.

- An issue where legacy text that has been updated disappears has been fixed.

- An issue where default postscript printer screen settings were incorrect has been fixed.

- An issue where a crash or error occurs when closing certain paths in Live Paint groups has been fixed.

- An issue where Illustrator CS3 crashes on a Mac when opening a Graphic Style library containing a graphic style that uses the Crystallize effect has been fixed.

- An issue where a crash sometimes occurs when canceling a live effect progress bar has been fixed.

10 comments:

I am sure this is a question that has been posed before, but for someone who only works occasionally with CS components, how long should one wait (for updates and fixes to be in place) before commitiing to updating. In other words after the launch of a new version how long does it typically take for a software program to be "right"?

I'm probably not the best person to ask such a question. I consider myself an "early adopter" -- I usually upgrade to new products the day they come out.

My thinking is that unless there is some major issue, I will always benefit from a newer version. If there are smaller issues, those will be addressed with updates, such as this one. I can't see how waiting for this update would make me any more comfortable now than had I installed CS3 earlier.

Naturally, I leave the older version on my computer for several months just in case I find I need to go back. But by and large, I move forward.

I offer this advice mainly to individual users though -- when IT personnel or system administrators need to manage large installations across an entire company or division, it is foolish to upgrade to newer versions without any degree of testing. My clients will usually "seed" an upgrade to a few savvy users while also doing some of their own testing. Only after confirming that no major issues exist for the company with their files, will the IT department roll out the new versions across the company. At that time, I also urge them to remove older versions, which helps avoid issues by making sure everyone is using the same version.

Of course, these are general statements -- each organization must do what is best for them.

As for your last question, about how long it takes for a program to be "right" -- well, in all honesty, a company believes that a program is right the day it ships. Otherwise, the program wouldn't ship. By and large, updates like these (13.0.1) address issues that are found after shipping (or after the product is locked down internally, just before shipping). While plenty of testing is done (both internally at Adobe and externally via beta testers), there are always issues that fall through the cracks.

Chalk that up to working feverishly on the updates to my Illustrator and Creative Suite books for CS3 -- and all of the new video titles up on Lynda.com. Once those are out of the way, I can find some time to finish the multiple pages podcast I'm working on and develop some more Rubber Cement tutorials.

The fact that updates can ONLY be obtained through Adobe's updater application would seem to make company/division-wide updates incredibly taxing. I'm sure it's just another brilliant anti-piracy scheme of some sort, but having to download this update to every individual workstation in a large office would be annoying enough to keep a lot of IT folks from bothering.

Scratch that! There is a standalone updater available on their site. It's not an Apple Installer package so you can't multicast it out over ARD, but PackageMaker is pretty bad and I can understand not wanting to use it.

It did force me to quit my web browser before the installation would proceed for some reason, but it ran successfully with the ethernet yanked, so it seems like it's all self contained and not one of those updaters-that-downloads-an-updater-that-downloads-the-update like Acrobat Reader.

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